Why this root-cause approach to healthcare is so effective.

I still remember the gut feeling that came over me while sitting in the dermatologist’s office, speaking to the nurse about how acne forms. She didn’t have any real answers for me — but she had antibiotics. As a desperate sixteen year old, this gut feeling which implied “something’s missing here” quickly got squashed and gratefully replaced by the promise of her superficial description of sebum formation. She explained that oral and topical antibiotics (used indefinitely if needed) would eliminate the bacteria which caused the sebum to form and thus eliminate acne. When I asked her why the problematic bacteria was there to begin with, she responded with “we don’t know.” They didn’t know the root-cause of acne… BUT they did have pills to alleviate my symptoms.

This was the first of many medical visits I’d be making in my teens as part of the battle I waged against my own brokenness. Over the course of the next four years, I’d be taking a whole concoction of pills to fix my attention-span, my obsessiveness, my eczema, depression, and anxiety. From the age of sixteen until my dad’s health insurance ran out at age twenty, I took antibiotics, steroids, anti-depressants, ant-anxiety pills, and eventually prescription methamphetamines to help me get through college.

When we’re not encouraged to look at the root-causes of our illness

And initially these drugs helped. My skin cleared up, I hyper-focused in my classes, and I felt less anxious in the evenings when I would come down off the ADD drugs by popping some Celexa or Lexapro. The anti-depressants didn’t offer much relief and I gave up on those first. The side-effects from the other drugs started to get progressively worse and eventually that gut feeling which told me something wasn’t right became so loud that I could no longer ignore it. I tapered off all of the drugs and took an extended break from college classes — beginning my journey into the world of holistic healthcare and lifestyle medicine.

This article isn’t about shitting all over emergency medicine or about relaying my whole health history, which you can read here if you’d like. This article’s about a new world of practicing medicine — fueled by root-cause treatments leveraging cutting-edge science. Having already been adopted around the globe by brilliant medical doctors and other healthcare professionals fed up with symptom suppression, this new way of practicing medicine is what vulnerable young girls like myself could’ve and should’ve received while seeking treatment for so many seemingly unrelated symptoms.

This new approach is called Functional Medicine.

Most of my conversations these days gravitate towards topics of health and medicine, which as a nutritionist, isn’t surprising. But what does often surprise me is how many people I come across (especially those pursuing careers in healthcare) who aren’t familiar with Functional Medicine. It’s still common to lump any protocol or practice outside the scope of the conventional pharmaceutical-based “emergency” model into the category of “Alternative Medicine,” which is also associated with being unscientific or unfounded. Woo woo, if you will.

The Institute of Functional Medicine defines a Functional Approach as: an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness. It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors and leverages that data to direct personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes.

A functional approach is based on the way our genes are impacted by and respond to our environment (what’s going on inside and outside of us.) The guiding principle is that if we can change our environment and our behaviors, we can change the way that our genes perform, thus eliminating the myriad of symptoms which are contributing to one of the many diseases we face.

A central piece to the “environment” is the patient’s chosen lifestyle. One major environmental factor which modifies a person’s gene expression is their nutritional status. Nutrients can influence the expression of genes and they can influence the translation of the genetic messages into our body’s active proteins — thus altering that protein’s influence in controlling metabolic function.

Whole foods: the foundation of a functional healthcare approach

This means that our genes do not predetermine our health! Whaaat?! Turns out we have more room for healing than we’ve been taught to believe. However, belonging to a culture which has normalized treating each symptom with a different drug can make the lifestyle changes involved in root-cause feel like an impossible feat left the the idealists and the privileged. I’m here to advocate for normalizing root-cause medicine.

I’m very grateful for the affluence which comes with a life in the modern developed world. That being said, we do live in a culture which doesn’t readily empower us with root-cause solutions. We’re often led to believe that certain people have great genes, while the rest of us are predetermined to certain diseases — oftentimes becoming self-fulfilling prophecies of these cultural paradigms and accepting diagnosis and treatment plans which offer us no real answers or solutions.

This is where functional health coaches and practitioners come in. This is where building supportive tribes becomes essential, and this is where revolutionizing our current medical model and food systems becomes imperative. Making healthy choices needs to be the norm — not a stressful form of social and cultural isolation or a privilege to white people with money.

To further elaborate why this new paradigm in health is so important and effective, let me give you more details into the functional model, based on scientific research:

No single gene controls the presence or absence of chronic disease. Our pattern of health and illness is determined by how whole families of genes are expressed, and that expression can be influenced and altered greatly by a range of lifestyle, diet, and environmental factors.

Due to the severity of our current health epidemic, functional Medicine practitioners — such as myself — adopt a flexible perspective on treatment approaches. The use of drugs or surgery does not disappear entirely, yet lifestyle interventions assume a primary role when appropriate. The goal is to support as many people in AVOIDING emergency interventions such as drugs and surgery as possible.

Obviously, a nutritionist can neither prescribe drugs nor perform surgery. These options are left to the functionally-trained medical professionals working alongside us. Once emergency procedures are completed — if and when necessary — coaches and nutritionists take the core roles of support through post-surgery healing and transitioning off pharmaceuticals. These holistic practices are prioritized for their lower cost as much as for their preventative and long-term health benefits. If we can avoid emergency intervention altogether, even better.

Being a systems-oriented medical approach, Functional Medicine focuses on seven core physiological systems. These are interconnected and define how we as humans function. In the functional paradigm, a breakdown in any of these systems will lead to a host of symptoms we currently link to disease. Here are these seven:

Digestion and assimilation

Detoxification

Defense and Repair

Cellular Communication

Cellular Transport

Energy

Structure

At it’s core, Functional Medicine steers us away from the normalized identification with isolated diseases and encourages us towards seeing the interconnected process underlying each “disease.”

The current Western model of medicine as we have grown to use it works predominantly by addressing emergency situations, leaving practitioners and patients with little understanding or real agency towards healing the underlying interconnections. In fact, in conventional Western Medicine, the underlying interconnection is often overlooked or discredited entirely.

This has led to an epidemic of chronically ill people with absolutely no resources to heal their bodies and lives — instead being reduced to a life of poor health, pharmaceutical reliance, and oftentimes a shorter life-span. It’s basically failing us. This is not healthcare — it’s sick care.

And although the field known as “complimentary medicine” tends to be a step in the direction towards systems-based care, it’s often practiced within the same paradigm of symptom-suppression and management, only using supplements alongside pharmaceuticals. This was my personal experience seeing integrative doctors in my early twenties who offered me confusing yet expensive supplements and left me feeling disconnected from my own body and financially stressed. They didn’t take a systems approach and get me involved enough to feel empowered by my choices.

One of the main ways which Functional Medicine principles affects healing is by addressing the following modifiable lifestyle factors, thus bringing our core physiological processes back into balance. These lifestyle factors are:

Sleep and relaxation (my favorites!)

Nutrition and hydration

Exercise and movement

Social relationships (tribe is ESSENTIAL)

Stress and the management thereof

These five factors make up the “environment” which surrounds our genes and contributes to their expression. By changing said environment, we’re telling our genes to express themselves in a ways which creates optimal health. How rad, right?!

As a lifestyle medicine practitioner myself, this is the kind of information which really lights me up! This is why I do what I do. I was failed by the medical establishment at a time in my life when I really needed a systems approach. Instead of blaming the system and living the life of a health victim, I’m choosing to play a role in creating a new system.

An important takeaway is that a Functional approach is not anti-Western Medicine and nor am I in my healthcare philosophies. I’m so grateful for doctors and emergency procedures. For example, because of emergency medicine, infant mortality is no longer the huge impediment it once was for our species. We’re living longer and aren’t as vulnerable to acute infections and accidents as our ancestors. The list of benefits modern medicine has afforded us in long.

On a very personal note, emergency procedures saved the lives of BOTH of my parents this last summer when my dad was admitted to the emergency room with walking pneumonia and the doctors discovered stage one testicular cancer. This required he have THREE emergency surgeries over the period of a few months.

Barely two months after this my mother had a brain aneurysm rupture unexpectedly and required an emergency flight to a hospital which saved her life with brain surgery and follow-up care. This landed both of my parents in surgical ICU’s in different California hospitals at the same time. Talk about modern miracles.

But these emergency procedures are oftentimes avoidable and unnecessary in the lives of folks with knowledge and support in preventative care. My parents neglected their health and will be the first ones to tell you that they contributed greatly to their emergencies. I do understand that it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to embrace lifestyle medicine so that emergencies are a thing of the past. But I believe that it’s essential that we all know what our options truly are.

I’ll use myself as an example: I have not seen a conventionally trained doctor since I tapered off all pharmaceuticals at age twenty. I have, however, worked with several functional clinicians and practitioners — all offering a whole host labs, supplements, laser treatments, dietary protocols, talk therapy, etc. All of these things kept me from any emergency states which would require I need the conventional Western approach. Self-care, baby.

What we need for the everyday is an approach to medicine which empowers individuals and communities to understand how their bodies actually work. It shouldn’t be a privilege to live a life of health and biological resilience; it should be the norm and our future generations should expect this. Just as international travel and WiFi are so ubiquitous to modern culture to be considered normal, I believe we must also normalize lifestyle medicine and expect all of our healthcare professions to take a Functional Approach.

Now I want to hear from you all — what do you know about functional medicine and how has it impacted you in your life?

without leaving home

I remember so many nights, standing in line at my local drugstore, half-alive under the buzzing fluorescents, waiting to pay for an over-the-counter sleep aid. This was not the solution I wanted and left me feeling yucky the following day. But this had become the safety blanket which allowed me to feel a modicum of control over a problem impacting every area of my life: insomnia.

I haven’t taken a pharmaceutical in twelve years, but over-the-counter sleep aids became the chemical bandaids I resorted to on countless occasions. I’m far enough out of those woods to write candidly about it now with hindsight and compassion for the struggle so many of us face with sleep. And even if your sleep is decent, this article may still offer you some nuggets to get it to great.

Sleep disruption will do crazy things to us. It will drive us to make decisions out of desperation, fear, and impulsivity. And once we’ve developed patterns of sleep disruption, the impact of these patterns can feel like a tree with too many branches to manage, leaving the root causes neglected entirely. I offer practical solutions to address the root-cause of sleep disruption while also respecting the impact sleep has on our entire life.

When you so tired you one with the floor

I read the phrase “sleep like you’re on vacation” in Robb Wolf’s newest book, Wired To Eat — and loved it. Most of us associate vacations with relaxation and an escape from the world of adult commitments. It’s commonly reported that we sleep deeper and longer while on vacation because we don’t have our regular obligations and stressors to wake up to.

The whole purpose of a vacation is to take a break and recharge – which is exactly what our sleep and nighttimes should be. A study done in 2013 estimates that one-third of the population reports at least one symptom of insomnia.(1)

I firmly believe that relating to sleep in a whole new way — as a vacation from daily obligations and stimulation — is an essential first step in regaining our health, especially if we’re dealing with persistent insomnia. It certainly worked wonders on my own health.

As described above, the topic of sleep hits a very personal note for me, as it’s something I’ve struggled with since childhood. My sleep got so bad in my mid-twenties that my whole life started to deteriorate. Sleep became the primary indicator as to how everything else in my life was doing and I scheduled my days with the assumption that I might be tired. It took a lot of tinkering, patience, and committed lifestyle changes to get myself to where bedtimes are no longer a source of anxiety, but instead a yummy chance to let go of the day.

nighttime selfies are harder with mood lighting, encouraging us to unplug.

Here’s what I now believe: nighttime needs to be seen as a separate phase from day — with a different set of practices, rituals, and benefits. If I overstimulate myself and try to hold onto my day after it’s passed away, sleep and rest will start to feel like an obligation my adult needs to enforce upon my inner-child. This is what, I believe, leads a lot of people to reach for a bottle of Ambien.(2)

And in order to relate to sleep as we might a vacation, we need to recognize it’s important place in the lives of humans since the beginning of time. As far as we can tell, we’ve always had nighttime, darkness, and rest. It’s very modern to assume that we should stay up and pull our days’ priorities into our nights’ rest time. We need to recognize the ways this modern behavior is hijacking our health so that we can give ourselves permission to let go of the cortisol-producing obligations of our days.

Some Impacts of poor night-time routines

Hormone disruption.

Breakdowns in serotonin metabolism, due to inefficient dark exposure and poor conversion of hormones like melatonin & GABA.

Depleted melatonin, a hormone produced when our bodies are exposed to real darkness and colder temperatures. Melatonin acts as one of the body’s core antioxidants, it protects us from cancers and premature aging, stimulates human growth hormone, and increases lifespan exponentially – to name a few! It does SO many things. (4)

We run high cortisol, a hormone which is best-known as a key “stress-hormone.” Cortisol is important to many functions, but needs to taper dramatically at night and often doesn’t when we’re up exposed to light at night.

Appetite increase, due to hunger hormones being hijacked. When we sleep as nature intended and our metabolism is working, we’re equipped to fast for 8-12+ hours throughout the night. Nighttime signals satiety hormones, daytime signals hunger hormones. So what happens when we extend our days? Hunger hormones turn on cravings– especially for carbohydrates. (5)

Glucose disposal disruption.

Our insulin sensitivity is tightly linked to phases of light and dark. We’re more insulin sensitive when we have a balance of dark and light. Too much light sends our bodies the message that it’s endless summertime and we crave more carbohydrate.

Mood instability and Impulsivity.

Because, as you can see, so many different biochemical processes get tripped up when our sleep is disrupted, it should come as no surprise that sleep deprivation — from minor chronic deprivation to severe insomnia — is linked to mood disorders. (6)

We’re much more likely to be an asshole. Seriously — we could turn into this guy.

Basic steps to help you sleep like you’re on vacation

Master Your Days

Our whole lives can be defined by the quality of our days; the moment to moment choices and experiences we have and the freedom we feel we have over said choices and experiences.

Did we live in alignment with our deepest truest selves or were we out of integrity and checked-out? Did we execute our goals and move closer to our dreams?

Eat to balance blood-sugar, from our first meal of the day to our last. Each meal feeds into a hormonal pattern which starts the moment we wake up. If we start out as a rollercoaster, this will impact our biochemistry at night. Think low-glycemic.

Did we get out into the light and get ample Vitamin D production during the day? If we didn’t, it’s going to be much harder to let go of the day. I find it much harder to wind down and embrace a vacation from light, stimulation, and responsibility if I’ve been inside all day. It’s like my body is still waiting for the light exposure if I never get it!

Avoid comparing your health needs to others who seem to be “natural sleepers.” You don’t know what someone else’s health history is or what their health future health will be. If someone isn’t committed to healing, their standards may not fit yours. Know your standards!

Circadian Entrainment & Respecting the Darkness

Our health relies on our bodies’ ability to read environmental queues of light and temperature in order to do just about everything well.

Electrical lighting is VERY new to human history and it’s changed a lot of how our culture goes about life, providing us with opportunities and growth that would never have happened otherwise. It’s a blessing but needs much greater management.

In order to heal our sleep patterns, we need to respect the darkness and use electricity and digital technology more wisely.

Waking up at a reasonably early hour and getting enough sunlight is part of circadian entrainment, as is lowering your light exposure at night and unplugging as early as possible.

Utilize blueblocker glasses for any screen time or if you don’t have any option but to be under florescent lights at night. Humans are the only animal on earth to have created such an abundance of artificial light. All other species didn’t sign up for this. Think about how much nightly regenerating (both in humans and in other animals) is necessary for life to work properly.

Clean up your Diet & Supplement when Necessary

An mentioned above, from the time we wake up until our heads hits the pillow, eating will impact our sleep. The most common causes of sleep disruption — aside from the light and overstimulation mentioned above — is inflammation and poor glucose disposal. Both dietary issues. (7)

Eat a low-inflammatory, moderate to low-glycemic diet and consider saving your highest carb consumption for dinnertime, as we convert tryptophan from carbohydrates (getting it from protein is misleading), which we convert into melatonin and other hormones needed for sleep. (8)(9)

A personalized diet with whole food-sourced carbs (think rice or starchy veggies) will do the most for your sleep, as it has you remove the foods which spike blood sugar and cause the most inflammation.

Magnesium is crucial for sleep and should be gotten from diet AND supplementation if you’re dealing with insomnia.

If you consume coffee and tea, make sure they’re of the highest quality and begin tapering off of them as early as 10AM or 12PM –replacing them with calming herbs, adaptogens, and magnesium.

Have a Calm The Fuck Down supplement protocol. Here’s what’s in mine:

Essential oils in a diffuser was a HUGE game-changer for my bedtime routine — here’s mine. Below are my go-to oils, but there are many. Essential oils are so rad – have fun with it!

Sleepy Herbal concoctions. I make my own. I purchase herbs from the local herb shop and make them in a mason jar overnight or while I’m away during the day. I find them more refreshing when they’re cold, so I tend to steep them in advance for something like 8 hours, strain them into another mason jar, and store in the fridge. Each night I’ll pour myself 1/2 cup, oftentimes mixing my magnesium powder directly into the herbs and sipping while I begin my bedtime routine. Currently using:

Mood lighting ain’t just for sexy time — it should be a regular feature of your room. Get some candles or some fake candles, replace your overhead lights with lamps. Replace your fluorescent and LED bulbs with amber ones. Not only will your melatonin production and sleep improve dramatically, but friends and lovers will also feel better in your space! Whether it’s on our radar or not, we’re all impacted by bad lighting.

Keep your room decor minimal and clutter-free. Aim to limit associations outside of sleep and sex so that your biochemistry will respond to the queues at night that its’ time to rest.

If you’re sensitive to noise, consider a sound machine to drown out distractions. I’ve linked in the one that I use and it’s worked wonders! As soon as I turn it on at night, my body knows it’s bedtime.

Set an Unplug time and STICK TO IT. This has been essential for setting the tone in my room at night. My unplug time is 9PM and when I stray from this, I feel it the next day — even with blueblockers. Aside from the light, we need to cut ourselves off from the relentless demands of the external world. Keep a novel by your bed to read each night to wind down with instead.

In closing, this may feel like a lot so take it in strides and aim to make small changes here and there. It helps to know which areas you get tripped up by most. Once some new patterns are set and your sleep improves, you can tinker with how much flexibility you have. I find that I can get away with staying out later now 20% of the time because 80% of the time, my system knows what time it is.

At first, especially if you have poor sleep, you may need to go all in — 100% committed to your nighttime routine. Just remember, it’s also a commitment to your days and ultimately, to your future. This may help when you feel like early bedtimes mean you’re missing out and losing something.

Now I want to hear from you on all things sleep. How is your sleep and what do you do to support yourself in getting in the proper ZZZ’s?

]]>https://www.kymber-maulden.com/sleep-like-youre-on-vacation/feed/0Healing through the lens of evolution — while appearing modern as fuckhttps://www.kymber-maulden.com/healing-through-the-lens-of-evolution/
https://www.kymber-maulden.com/healing-through-the-lens-of-evolution/#respondSat, 15 Sep 2018 17:58:56 +0000https://www.kymber-maulden.com/?p=4636

Growing up, I used to joke that I was born two hundred years too late.

This was a silly thing to say if you look at women’s rights, economics, short life-spans, and so many other factors pre-industrial women had to deal with. As a pre-teen, I was too young to understand history for this statement to make sense, yet there was a reason I would say this. Aspects to industrial society which didn’t feel right consistently left me with a feeling of displacement.

Aspects such as unquestioned use of electricity, the fast pace, overstimulation, sedentary lifestyles, mass-production of environmentally destructive consumer goods, the need for so many drugs, and what seemed to be a large-scale lack of systems thinking … drove this displaced feeling. Even if I wasn’t able to name it. One thing I wasn’t clear on was how far back I’d need to look to understand myself as an animal (albeit there’s value in learning any history.) It was looking back thousands of years which has helped me the most.

I made these jokes as a child and teenager who grew up seeing far too much dysfunction to feel well-adjusted in this culture. So I’ve often questioned if it’s personal trauma which would drive this displaced feeling. Sure, that’s part of it. But I believe feeling displaced in modern society is quite common and contributes to how we relate to and treat our chronic illnesses.

I also believe that the home I found within the ancestral health and ‘Paleo” community spoke directly to the little girl in me who would make such strange jokes. And within this community of research and application, I began to feel at home in my own animal skin. And I began to see my symptoms differently.

It’s easy to develop insecurities about our own value as a contributing member of society if we consistently show up as: out of it, tired, sad, foggy, inflamed, incompetent, anxious, prematurely aged, unfocused, distracted, infertile, restricted, depressed, repressed, bloated, (h)angry, addicted to various substances, or living without basic metabolic functions. These poor states of health can hijack our attempts at being a fertile mate, innate creator, or even a good friend. Although my views may seem extreme, it’s clear we’re more likely to have societal dysfunctions when so many individuals have biological dysfunctions.

Life can also feel isolating when we’re chronically unwell in a culture which promotes behaviors leading to chronic illness in the first place. This is where intentionally stepping back from our personal struggles and the norms by which we live and observing through a broader lens can make all the difference in our health pursuits.

Let’s call this broader lens an evolutionary template.

Before adopting an evolutionary template for healthcare, root-cause healing often felt isolating and burdensome. Myself and others with debilitating chronic symptoms were victims carrying the burden of self-healing amongst healthy masses. But the insights I gained through this broader evolutionary lens became a consistent source of empowerment for me, leaving me with greater agency to create applicable solutions to otherwise shitty life experiences.

Finding strength in our wildness.

Cause let’s face it, chronic illness fucking sucks. It can pull the rug out from beneath us, take away our futures, and deplete the confidence we all ought to have in our capacities to live a good life. You cannot chase your dreams when you can barely function. You cannot find a great love when you don’t love your own life nor your own tired face in the mirror. And what’s worst is that you cannot help but blame yourself for being so goddamn sensitive in such an individualistic culture with so much unrealistic images of what health looks like.

But what if we didn’t have to walk around with the belief that we’ve been dealt bad skin, bad teeth, bad joints, poor body composition, weak digestion, low libido, mood disorders, psychotic episodes, and so many other symptoms which often fall under the umbrella of “genetic predispositions?” I’m not implying we can always reverse or even avoid all of these issues… but what if understanding our history and evolution gave us a lot more power to do so?

I firmly believe that adopting some historical and evolutionary context can empower us to explore holistic options where we’d otherwise reach for the next pill to treat misunderstood symptoms. And until we become these holistic explorers, it’s impossible to know what’s truly possible for us and our health.

Root-cause healing offers no magic pill.

What this lens is and what it offers Us

An evolutionary lens is a mental model or framework which can be applied to human health and behavior. This lens offers us perspective and insights in the form of time-frames and scientific theories regarding human nature. It offers us clinical data to better understand human biochemistry and to understand why our bodies and minds respond to the modern world as they do. The world we live in has changed exponentially in a very small amount of time, yet much our human wiring has not changed.

From an evolutionary perspective, we’re currently living with a drastic mismatch between what our species has adapted to handle and what our current environment is providing. This mismatch forms the basis of individual and collective disfunction and chronic illness.

Yes, Homo Sapiens and all previous ancestors do have a lot of mysteries. There’s A LOT still left to speculation. However, we do have enough data to know that much of human history was spent without ANY of the modern conveniences we currently rely on for life. And many of these conveniences — as convenient and “normal” as they are — also hijack our hormones, appetite, immune system, and alter our very genetic expression.

There’s no doubt that life was no picnic for early man, yet we can learn so much by looking back.

This lens isn’t about adopting another religious myth to get all righteous — it’s the formula for a perspective shift which involves history, science, and a systems approach to life.

All of recorded history dates back no more than 8,000 years, yet looking back further than recorded history and understanding why I might feel and behave in the ways that I do has provided me with immense strength and meaning. My hope is that this lens can support others in a similarly powerful way.

How might the LACK of an evolutionary template create obstacles to healing?

When we’re unwell, we can play a blame game. We can place ourselves in a position where blame is a source of empowerment. Blaming — whether ourselves, the medical establishment, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, industrialization, bad science, greedy food corporations, animal consumption, genes or our parents’ choices, or even isolating foods like sugar and gluten — creates a myopic perspective. Blame often fuels dogmatism instead of wisdom. Despite the necessity to identify factors contributing to our illness in order to heal, we heal most thoroughly when we can access our innate wisdom and resilience, not when we dogmatically point fingers.

We can adopt dogmatic beliefs about diet. When we’re aiming to heal, dogmatism can be a big blinder. It’s very human, very common, and can creep in subtly so we don’t see how much it dictates what and how we eat, how we love, and what we believe — especially if we have disorderly eating tendencies. I see this a lot in people’s reactions to nutritional studies which make waves for a short period, often get disproven or revised, leaving many confused around what’s healthy. Nutrition science is new and we need more than epidemiology to understand what’s healthy for our species.

It is isolating to be sick without an empowering context. No biological organism can be subject to too many changes at once without problems arising in the organism. It’s nearly impossible to take into account all that’s determined by a culture which changes far more rapidly than any biological system could adapt, therefore we don’t actually know what someone’s body is doing when it seems normal and healthy by industrial standards until something breaks (as in acute disease.) Without an evolutionary lens, we often don’t consider how the biologies of seemingly healthy people are being impacted too.

So how can we use an evolutionary template as a framework for healing?

Start with some respect for (and investment in) the science and theories regarding human evolution. Painfully, about one in every three Americans doesn’t believe in evolution — despite clear and legitimate data proving that some form of evolution has taken place. There’s a lot that we don’t know about our history, yet we do have enough data to draw some pretty clear pictures at this point. This doesn’t have to discredit your religious faith.

Brush up on historical events. I offer some books in the recommended reading page on my site. History can inspire you to relate mindfully to ubiquitous elements of civilization, such as: patriarchy, imperialism, agriculture, electricity, nuclear family structures, religious myths, bio-individuality, genetic mutations and metabolic differences, environmental issues, trauma and addictive behavior, basic human rights, psychological disorders, and even cultural trends in intimacy and love. So many areas of study make more sense – to me – when placed in the light of history and evolution.

Embrace personal growth — healing requires growth. Examine the ways which being domestic is hindering this growth and get curious about the ways you could be a little more wild. Where are you repressed? Consider an evolutionary template as a container to hold in place everything you learn about yourself and as a catalyst for a mindful lifestyle.

Develop your inner biohacker. Consider genetic testing & learning about your personal ancestry. Talk to your parents about your family history, birth story, and grandparents. You can get this test done now which calculates the rate at which your cells are aging – thus determining your biological age! And of course, reach out to me if you have any interest in exploring your health one-on-one. I offer both single sessions and a four-month program (which can, of course, be extended to longer work.)

Enjoy the immense privilege modern living accords us. Since it’s what is – enjoy being modern as fuck… especially if you have access to research, to biohack, and to curate your own health adventure. For all of the problems the world faces, I still believe we’re blessed to be riding the waves created by our ancestor’s hardships. Because of women before me, I lead a very empowered life as a woman. Because of the work of my ancestors, I have far greater options than they could’ve imagined.

If we’re not empowered to heal, then we’ve missed the point.

Now I want to hear from you. How does history and evolution influence your daily life? How about your healthcare practices?

Find out why intimacy makes or breaks our health goals.

It was my first year at Burning Man and was, in many ways, a living dream. An event I’d fantasized attending for years was suddenly a reality and I was immersed in the indescribable magic which only a virgin burner could. The downside being: I was miserable much of the time due to conflicts with my ex boyfriend. I’ve heard the playa described as a non-specific amplifier of whatever is going on within us — not unlike psychedelics. For me this meant deep attachment wounds being reopened each time him and I crossed paths.

We had officially ended four months prior after a year and a half of consistent conflict. And as it’s so wisely said, some relationships end so poorly that they never truly end. In my case, four months was not nearly long enough for my nervous system to remain calm at the sight of him.

The first eight months of our relationship had been conveniently long-distance — leaving room for miscommunications and incompatibilities to remain hidden. We were passionate from the start and behaved (while together) as though we were committed partners. We shared an intimate community including close friendships with his housemates and spent enough nights together to store extra toothbrushes for each other. Albeit clearly loving and desiring each other, our entire relationship was one insecure land-mine after another.

We fought constantly and never reached the level of transparency necessary for trust to form — especially since we weren’t monogamous and he took other lovers. We were, as attachment theorists describe, in an anxious-avoidant trap. And this trap held me captive for over six months after our breakup, not even losing it’s grip during an otherwise magical playa experience.

Is your way of loving making you sick?

Despite my background in personal and early child development, it wasn’t until a year after this Burning Man experience that the book Attached was brought to my attention. This book and further research into attachment patterns has opened up a whole new world of understanding and, potentially, more empowered choices for me – should I commit to new ways of loving.

Humans are a social species, completely dependent on each other for basic survival. We are one of the few animals to come out of the womb completely reliant on our external environment for basic development and survival. And this dependence goes on for years, rendering us very vulnerable to those early care providers. Therefore, physical and emotional attachment plays a crucial role in our early development and in our healing capacities throughout our lives.

This is a topic well-worth educating ourselves on if we are seeking individual and global healing.

What is Adult Attachment Theory?

Adult Attachment Theory is a field of study within psychology which combines early childhood attachment patterns with the patterns we develop in our most intimate relationships as adults. Our early childhood attachment patterns are set in place within the first few years of life and tend to show up in our adult strategies for loving those closest to us – specifically romantic and sexual partners.

There are four main patterns of attachment which we adopt from our early years and one core pattern which dominates our adult relationships. Realistically, these patterns are flexible, fall on a spectrum, and can vary depending on life circumstances and the relationship dynamics we’re in. Here are the four types:

Secure: Securely attached adults tend to be the ones who had their basic needs met as small developing children. Their parents were consistent in their affections and boundaries, which allowed them to develop with the safety and support necessary to thrive. As adults, securely attached folks tend to find it easier to be in relationships and have less trauma and recovery time when romantic relationships end. They tend to have a greater awareness of their standards and values and are much less likely to find themselves in dynamics which don’t meet these values and standards. They can give and receive love more easily than an insecurely attached person, so building trust and intimacy is (on average) easier for these types.

Insecure avoidant: Although women can definitely be avoidant as well. avoidance tends to be more prevalent in men. I believe our culture contributes to a higher percentage of male avoidance — providing men with less opportunities to experience & express their emotions, more shame around their emotional needs, and more pressure to play the role as material provider. Unfortunately, avoidance is very common and permeates the dating pool, as avoidant types tend to be single most of the time. Avoidance can manifest in many ways: in one’s personality, behaviors when single, and as “deactivation strategies” with romantic partners. “Deactivation strategy” is a term used by theorists to describe the various ways which avoidants block threatening levels of intimacy or commitment. They rarely date other avoidants because there’s no emotional glue to hold the relationship together. Common patterns to look out for are: having a history of many short-term partners, having unclear boundaries and a lot of “undefined” relationships, lacking closure or getting over an ex, finding fault in their partners, isolation behaviors, or blaming others for their lack of intimacy. Since in reality it’s a spectrum, it can range from mild emotional neglect to severe isolation or even abuse within a relationship dynamic.

Loving an avoidant can feel like perpetually waiting for our love to be met.

Insecure anxious/ambivalent: Anxious types are the opposite of avoidant and tend to need a lot of communication and reassurance in their relationships – especially in the beginning when the connection is fragile. Anxious attachments are very common in families where the parents were permissive, inconsistent, or even neglectful in their parenting styles. Since they also run on a spectrum, they have the potential to be great partners because of their tendency to care for others and to put in the work needed to sustain a relationship. If they’re committed to healing their insecure patterns and finding a partner who meets their needs for intimacy, these types can thrive. However, anxious types are often avoidant magnets (guilty!) so they tend to attract a lot of avoidant partners whom trigger all their familiar childhood wounds. Anxious types often confuse the passionate “hooked” feeling they get from an avoidant with the safety they’re really needing in a sustainable partnership. They can get attached very easily and once invested, will put themselves through hell for a relationship even if it’s clearly unhealthy.

Anxious-Avoidant: This is a less common form which involves both forms of insecure attachment in varying degrees. Anxious avoidant types tend to avoid intimacy, yet they also lash out emotionally in a way that an anxious type would do when they’re safety feels jeopardized. These types tend to look more extreme and can involve abuse or serious co-dependency.

Observing our personal patterns is crucial for changing them.

I want to make it clear that these attachment styles all run on a spectrum and can change with life experience, healing work, and relationship upgrades. I find it essential to healing for us to know what our attachment patterns are at their core… and for us to address the areas which need respect and healing. This often means actively choosing to abstain from dynamics which trigger our default patterns and retraining ourselves emotionally, psychologically, and biologically to be in a safe and healthy dynamic where all our core needs are met.

What often happens is that we get sucked into a dynamic which feels good at first because it is hitting some familiar chords which tell us what love feels like. A lot of times we’re making our romantic and sexual choices from a deeply unconscious place within us which is familiar with a certain energy – even if it’s destabilizing or insecure. On the surface, we might think that we’re creating something different and healthy because the new partner (or even a potential partner) is showing up in a new way. My recommendation is to watch the ways which you react to new potential partners, as your reaction will give you a good indication of the underlying current playing between you.

I’ve been training myself to detect if a guy has some avoidant patterns based on how I react to him when he’s not around and how I react to his COMMUNICATION STYLE. The communication style, for me, is often the dead giveaway as to whether a potential mate is avoidant or not. I’ve come to the clear conclusion that I veer towards an anxious attachment in many of my romantic dynamics and my reactions. But not always.

Unlike many anxious types, I’ve done enough work with myself that I have no problem being alone or enjoying my own company. I don’t generally feel that I need to have a partner to enjoy life or feel inherently valuable. I also don’t cling to all friends and lovers and can assert my boundaries well with 75% of the people in my life. It’s that 25% of romantic partners which get me hooked and kick up the Insecure Kymber. This is when I know a guy has funky boundaries and avoidance patterns I’m getting sucked into.

It’s no one’s “fault,” per se, it’s simply that wounds speaking to wounds in some deeply primal way mimicking early survival patterns. Unless a partner and I come to an intentional agreement to work through our survival wounds together — which is more possible than many realize — we’ll surely fall into an insecure romantic trap and repeat the same traumatic shit from our past. I can go from being fully confident of my own worth, beauty, strength, autonomy, etc… to feeling completely distracted and insecure… all based on who I plug my sexual and romantic energy into. You can see why this impacts our health goals so much.

Health impacts of an insecure attachment

It’s not to hard to correlate the stress of long-term insecure relationships with the development of chronic illness. If you’re health-driven, you already know that stress has numerous health implications, especially in the long-term. When we have insecure attachment patterns prolonged by unresolved childhood trauma, we’re consistently pushing our bodies and psyches into a state of survival stress. Because we want and need intimacy for social and biological reasons, healthy attachments are crucial allies in building resiliency in the face of health and other life challenges.

Here are some of the basic symptoms which get exasperated by insecure attachments:

anxiety, depression, and problems concentrating

sexual shame and other problems with sexual functioning and related organ systems

Lowered immunity and lowered impaired methylation function

Endocrine disruption in both sex hormones and stress hormones

High cortisol and sleep disturbances

Obsessive compulsive behavior

Social isolation, low self-esteem, body dysmorphia, and other destructive behaviors

Digestive issues

Lowered quality of life and overall lower success rates in health goals, motivation, and self-care

How our culture perpetuates insecure attachments

Let’s not beat around the bush – WTF are we doing together?

As you may have gotten if you’ve read some of my other blog posts, I don’t see our current culture to be the healthiest container for deep and lasting healing to unfold. Therefore, we must create our own safe container, our own rules and lifestyles, and unfortunately unlearn a lot of what we’ve been taught since infancy… in the name of healing and growth. This applies as much to how we love as it does to how we eat and how we work.

This culture is obsessed with looking good and keeping up appearances. So, when it comes to intimacy and dating, we’re bombarded with strategies and rules regarding how we should conduct ourselves so as to find our life partner. Here are a few messages I see myself having to unlearn:

We should keep our insecurities and wounds hidden.

We should hold back our truths and desires until we’ve reached a certain level of commitment

We should guard our hearts and make sure that our partners check off ALL our boxes before letting our guard down

We should hyper-focus on labels and materialistic rituals for signs of value and security

We should invest in power-struggles and relate based on extrinsic motivators (i.e. I only care if you care)

We’re raised as conquerers, after all. Therefore, love must also be conquered, tamed, and made into a socially acceptable package which will guarantee us lifelong security . However, what a lot of these messages and strategies do is they keep our truths buried and they inhibit us from growing from each love – even potential love – we encounter. Growth is intrinsic to changing our attachment patterns.

What can we do to heal?

If we allow ourselves to be truly honest with how we feel and what we want, be it from a specific person or from a phase in life, we can free ourselves from the attachment traps we get sucked into when we repress our truths. All repression leaves us with is unconscious unmet needs driving us to manipulate a person or situation, either by avoiding or by clinging.

To create this freedom, we must first know what our core attachment patterns are. Adult Attachment Theory can be a great framework for this work and the book I linked at the beginning of this article is a great way to get started. If you’re already in a dynamic with someone whom you suspect is avoidant or you see yourself compelled towards loving avoidant types, this book is another great one which has given me understanding and tools.

And if you favor shorter articles over books, I highly recommend you check out Mark Manson’s article on Attachment Theory here, where he goes into each attachment style and offers suggestions and insights as eloquently as only he can. The important takeaways are:

Take a painfully honest look at your childhood and your romantic patterns. Get very honest with yourself around your choices.

Understand that this shit runs deep. We need each other and in a sick culture, it makes sense that that need will get distorted.

Forgive yourself for all the “mistakes” you’ve made in an earnest attempt to love and have intimacy with others.

Commit to changing the way that you love so that you can have greater access to health and growth. It’s going to be uncomfortable to love someone who doesn’t trigger familiar patterns.

Never stop loving just cause you aren’t perfect. We all have mommy daddy issues, and we all still deserve deep love and intimacy.

Now I’d like to hear from you – what did you learn from this article that you might take into your current and future relationships? Make sure to share this article with anyone who might benefit from it. Happy loving!

]]>https://www.kymber-maulden.com/what-are-adult-attachment-patterns/feed/0How Mindfulness Escalates our Healing — even if we Hate to Meditate.https://www.kymber-maulden.com/mindfulness/
https://www.kymber-maulden.com/mindfulness/#respondSat, 03 Mar 2018 20:24:16 +0000http://www.kymber-maulden.com/?p=3956Mindfulness can be defined as a state of active, open attention on the present moment. When you’re mindful, you carefully observe your thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to your current experience, rather than dwelling on the past or anticipating the future.

In this article, I aim to make four points:

1) We can be mindful while doing anything – walking to the mailbox, getting some water, or taking a poop, for instance – and that’s the ultimate goal.

2) There are specific practices which train our minds and bodies for those times when escape is most common & habitual. These practices often involve rituals, intentional environments which elicit positive emotions, and often connect us with our inner-child.

3) Mindfulness in the form of sitting meditation may offer specific benefits for people prone to physical anxiety, hyperactivity, distractibility, and future-thinking.

4) Mindfulness is one of THE KEY lifestyle practices needed for healing and personal growth.

I’ll begin by sharing my history with mindfulness, which began early in life.

Since early childhood, I can remember myself to be an intense and highly sensitive person. I had big feelings and a propensity towards dreaming and planning.

The image of me to the right was taken when I was eight – the year I began public school and about the time I began to surf. My home life was so unstable that I ended up trading in much of my innate drive towards introspection and dreaming for external validation. Once I was placed in public school, I became a first-class social climber, leaving me very vulnerable to any criticism or praise. My identity became centered entirely around how others perceived me and I began to have a progressively harder and harder time being alone.

The main thing I could still do solo was surfing – which I did as often as possible. In hindsight, it’s clear to me now that surfing was my childhood mindfulness practice. Surfing became the sacred outlet for which I could channel my energy sos to navigate through complex social scenarios and to mitigate crazy family drama. It saved me. I became obsessed with cold salt water and the smell of sex wax. I would go to sleep at night and feel that lightness you feel as you drive through waves. It held me together and kept me present.

I still feel this way about being in the ocean – whether surfing or swimming – it is a sacred experience, calling me into full presence.

I was also seduced by the culture which came along with surfing. I covered my walls with images of pro surfers, hung out at the local surf shops, and would save up all my money to buy a shirt or rash guard with a Roxy label. The hip marketing and superficiality of the industry didn’t seem to taint the sanctity I felt in the water. Still to this day, the Roxy symbol and the smell of sex wax leaves me feeling like I just connected with a core part of myself.

To me, these positive associations with surf culture are similar to the associations I now have with sitting down in front a journal and a good pen, with stepping onto a dance floor resounding with bass – ready to dance, or with sitting down on a meditation cushion in a communal space. These are all my mindfulness routes back to self. And in these associations, I feel like I’m stepping into my purpose – which is to live as the realest expression of myself while connected to the whole – to something greater.

I believe everyone needs these associations to use as anchors, imploring us back to our core selves and to fully savoring our lives. My first memorable experience of mindfulness came in the form of surfing, so I may always relate to surfboards as holy tools of healing – even if I rarely make the surf these days. It’s a beautiful association which impacts me regularly.

Surfing got replaced for a few years by parties, boys, and drinking. I started smoking pot at an early age and had a hard time in school. Externally, I was the ultimate party girl kept afloat by superficial friendships and shopping trips. Internally I was overwhelmed and anxious all the time. By the age of sixteen, my needs for external validation had peaked and I was a fucking mess.

I didn’t know how to be alone, was consistently hurt by the low-quality friendships I created, and was obsessed with looking good. I cried at school a lot, had a lot of unrecognized metabolic imbalances, and developed an eating disorder which persisted for nearly eight years.

Two of my core character strengths are introspection and earnestness, leaving me with a higher level of self-awareness than I experienced in many of my peers at that time. These strengths drove me to seek answers and support early, while also driving me back to surfing, writing, painting, and dancing.

I always liked the ideaand image of sitting meditation and mindfulness, yet found it impossible to implement into my daily life. As much self-awareness as I had, I lacked the wisdom to know the true benefits in sitting through extreme anxiety. It wasn’t until my early twenties that my mindfulness meditation practice really took off.

Meditation began for me while living in San Francisco. I moved into a yoga ashram where meditation was mandatory for all residents. I knew I’d never make it to yoga or meditation on my own, so I placed myself in the environment where it was enforced. Residents were required to wake at 5:30AM daily for meditation and to attend at least four yoga classes a week. This year-long living experience was profound in all aspects of my life — even amidst extreme anxiety and unresolved eating issues.

This ashram became my container, allowing me to experience the full spectrum of being me – especially the internally crazy me.

After this, I was hooked on going within – even when it hurt like hell. I spent the following three years in Oakland practicing with a community of young adult buddhists. I began somatic experience work with a young buddhist who came to my house once a week and meditated with me in our practice room before each somatic session. Meditation became a crucial part of my life and a welcome escape from the societal pressures I’d taken on at an early age.

It got to a point where most of my friends were meditators and most of my social activities were tied to the dharma. I went on six different Vipassana silent meditation retreats over the course of three and a half years and became convinced that I wasn’t romantically compatible with anyone who didn’t meditate!

The image to the left is of me with one of my closest meditation buddies at age twenty-three. I was most at home when I was meditating or practicing some other form of mindfulness practice – such as silent hiking or cooking.

There were times when I felt like I was just too intense and sensitive for this world, so assumed I could always become a buddhist nun. I even shaved my head a number of times and researched a few different monastic options. It’s clear now that I’m not meant to be a monastic, but meditation was the profound salve I needed for the anxieties I’d been avoiding since early childhood.

About 15 minutes into a mediation session, I could feel my whole body relax into itself. My breathing slowed and deepened and my physical experience became all there was. After years of having intense feelings and anxieties which I felt pressured to hide or make “go away,” it was SO LIBERATING to sit with others where the sole purpose was simply feeling.

I realized for the first time that I’d been craving permission to be a deeply felt person. I’d been craving my own personal church which praised the parts of me that this culture didn’t seem to cater to. And now I found it inside of me. This felt essential.

As my physical health got progressively worse, it became clear that sitting meditation was not enough to help me. My buddhist teacher suggested that I couldn’t meditate my physical symptoms away and it became harder for me to sit with my symptoms. Truth be told, after obsessively sitting daily for years on end, I’d burnt myself out.

Out of complete necessity, I began to place more focus on understanding my chronic symptoms – which I document in my health history here if you’re interested. And for almost 5 years, I lost the ambition to meditate outside of the occasion social gathering. My needs took me elsewhere and I found mindfulness in the form of dancing and intimacy with others.

I learned a lot during this period about my own capacity for deep connection with others and the amount of healing which can come out of intimacy and being seen. This was the first time since childhood that my social life was one of my main focuses and, at the same time, wasn’t contributing to my suffering or disassociation from self. My relationships became conscious, deep, and healing — even if at times triggering as fuck.

Once I hit my saturn returns around twenty-eight…. I realized something profound about myself: I’m a future-oriented thinker. My natural tendency is to envision the future and I’m at my best when I’m striving towards goals and dreams. All of my health issues throughout my teens and twenties had made the future hard to predict. Illness can do that — pull the rug out from under our feet and leave us unable to envision a future we’d otherwise be dreaming about.

As I regained health and moved close to thirty, my future became top priority and the dreams which had been buried under years of survival stress came up – seeking recognition. Socializing lost a lot of it’s priority as my time became a precious dream-building resource. With this loss of social time, I also lost some profound time spent in mindfulness-based intimacy and I found myself getting caught in my thoughts more often again.

Sitting meditation came back into my life as if some silent universal alarm had summoned it. I HAD to sit in order to function. I felt anxious to do good by the dreams and visions which were now speaking to me and the game of “catching up” to where I thought I should be at the age of thirty was adding stress to my already-full schedule. This anxiety to build my dreams quickly and “catch up” was making my current circumstances harder to manage and was impacting my health.

What began as just a ten minute sit in the AM followed by journaling….turned into twenty minutes in the morning and twenty minutes before bed. I’ve also began to slowly design my own schedule to include all my mindfulness loves: swimming, surfing, writing, dancing, cuddling, doodling, walking while listening to music, etc…

These days mindfulness is a regular part of my morning and evening rituals and an invaluable resource I can access at any time in everything I do. It’s an evolving lifestyle choice and an expression of values. I’m building a tribe of value-driven like-minds and giving myself as many anchors as possible. Mindfulness forms the platform from which I create healing protocols for all my clients. It is essential to healing.

Here are some areas where mindfulness has clinically proven beneficial:

And if you’d like more about the data relating to studies on mindfulness, I recommend checking out Chris Kresser’s article on mindfulness here, where he more thoroughly elaborates on some of the studies I reference above and goes deeper into the physiological impacts of mindfulness practices.

]]>https://www.kymber-maulden.com/mindfulness/feed/0Ever think about how the Entertainment Industry impacts your health? Consider these points.https://www.kymber-maulden.com/how-the-entertainment-industry-impacts-our-health/
https://www.kymber-maulden.com/how-the-entertainment-industry-impacts-our-health/#respondSat, 23 Dec 2017 05:11:55 +0000http://www.kymber-maulden.com/?p=3911Like most people, I love a good story.

I love to be entertained and emotionally provoked by well-scripted human drama. I can easily fall victim to infamous Netflix binges, taking my harmless commitment to one episode of Man Men and turning it into a shameful four-hour binder until midnight. By the time I cut myself off, my personal problems have long-since been replaced by the complexities of Don Draper’s repressed male trauma and sexual dalliances. And suddenly I really need a whiskey, a cigarette, and some feminist pride.

Most of us have had some version of this experience since television made it’s big debut into modern human lifestyles. We’ve taken our species’ ancient drive towards drama and campfire stories to a whole new level with digital entertainment and globalize hollywood standards. And since entertainment serves a purpose vital to the human experience, I’m not opposed even to the hollywood versions — it’s all in the way that we choose to use it.

I believe most of us have at least a superficial understanding of the health impacts of late-night device usage and of becoming a “couch potato,” so this isn’t the focus of this article. I cover the health impacts of sedentary living and of artificial light here and here if you’re interested in those topics. In this article, I’d like to bring up a few ways which the entertainment industry and celebrity culture can fuck with our personal perceptions of reality and thus impact our mental and physical health.

Here we go.

Stars in most mainstream television shows & films are portrayed as slender, attractive, and oftentimes flawless, thus leaving viewers with the belief that this is normal and important.

We all know about this aspect of the media. Media floods us with images of how we should look and what we should buy in order to get us this standard of beauty. However, these media messages are much more obvious when they’re on a billboard, a Cover Girl commercial, or a tv clothing ad. What makes television programs potentially more harmful is that we start to invest in the humanity of the characters and we begin to relate their struggles and passions to our own. Most of us don’t look critically at each scene and scrutinize the fact that the young heroine in the show just woke up with perfectly straightened hair and flawless skin. But our unconscious will make note of it after a while.

Psychologically, we relate to the characters’ emotions as if they’re those of our friends and lovers – as if they’re our own. And we begin to send ourselves messages that having a blow out every single day and completely flawless skin is a normal thing to expect of ourselves. This is where our health can be really impacted by our entertainment choices. We start to work towards unrealistic and otherwise unimportant standards, which often take the place of more important goals — such as healthy hormone/energy levels, clear detox channels, biological strength and resiliency, and simply feeling good in our own bodies.

And while it’s true that some people do naturally have really fine skin and slender figures due to health or genetic advantages …… it’s not common in industrial society to have totally flawless skin and perfect figures. It’s completely unrealistic to have perfectly shiny locks straight out of a Pantene ProV commercial every day. Our skin gets freckles and even the healthiest skin will get some wrinkles and blemishes sometimes… this is natural. Our hair gets frizzy and oily and split ends appear – even on healthy people! Especially on healthy people because using natural shampoos which don’t leave plastic preservatives in our hair to give it that celebrity glow will leave us with “normal person hair.”

Characters in movies and shows rarely, if ever, consume foods which would actually uphold any true standards of health.

This ties in with my last point, as we are what we eat and our diets will realistically impact our appearance – especially in the long-term. But in entertainment, they often don’t have any correlation at all. How much commercial endorsement a show or movie gets will vary, yet I rarely see shows or movies in mainstream culture which regularly emulate healthy eating and living. So, not only are we sending our unconscious regular messages about how we should look, we’re also sending our unconscious totally whack signals regarding what is normal to eat.

I’ve been enjoying revisiting some of the shows I grew up watching on Netflix (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Seventh Heaven, Friends, 90210, Dawson’s Creek, Party of 5, etc.) Every single one of these shows portrays the characters eating Kellogs flakes, OJ, and muffins for breakfast, pizza, soda, and hamburgers for dinner. In some shows, such as The Vampire Diaries (yes, I like cheesy shows), every character drinks about half a bar on a regular basis, sending us the message that passionate attractive young people can stay attractive and high-functioning while also binge drinking regularly. It’s completely crazy.

Another example of a series that I went through on Netflix which left me with totally unrealistic perceptions was Gilmore Girls. Both women are beautiful, slender, in great health with high-energy … despite regularly binging on candy, ding-dongs, and leftover Chinese. Several times while watching I found myself craving crap I haven’t thought about in years – such as twinkies and pop tarts. Also appalling was watching a mother raise her daughter on crap that’s now implicated in the development of most chronic inflammatory & autoimmune diseases. The characters were emotionally relatable – yes – despite their energy, mood, and appearance being completely unscathed by the complete trash they subsisted on. This would never happen in real life…. but our unconscious mind doesn’t know the difference.

The ways which entertainment and media channels tell stories often lead us to believe that growth and healing are linear and climactic.

Have you noticed that most films and shows follow a specific plot structure? They get you invested in the characters and their stories, then they create drama and/or opportunities for you to feel disappointed or anxious, which drives you to root for some outcome or finale. The happily-ever-after outcome. The good guy lands the girl in the end. The diseased person goes through surgery and survives in the end. The unhappy person finally gets divorced or quits their job and creates their dream life. The End.

As I’m sure you’re aware, life rarely actually works out like this. Even when we win one big battle, life will give us more challenges or complications to test our patience and resilience. Even if we marry the man of our dreams, the real work begins after the honeymoon is over and we have to manage each other’s expectations. So it goes with every aspect to life which hollywood often paints in black and whites. This especially applies to healing from complex chronic illness, including trauma and addictions. It’s not always linear and it’s not something you attain and then you’re set for life.

There are set-backs, curveballs, and layers. Science is ever-evolving, offering us new insights and methods for understanding and healing. The more we learn about our inner-child, family history, and genetic ancestry, the more our healing possibilities expand and what we need will change. We need to anticipate that our symptoms, challenges, and needs will change. And growth will always be a necessity. The amount of time and commitment it takes to get us to a place of thriving maintenance is VERY personal and will never look exactly like someone else’s journey, especially if our illness is complex. The Hollywood script doesn’t apply to our real-world challenges, but again – our unconscious doesn’t know the difference. We have to consciously train our own expectations.

Some ideas for enjoying modern entertainment mindfully:

Healing does require balance, fun, and down-time, so I’m not recommending militant abstinence. But I DO recommend throwing out the cable altogether because of all the unhealthy adverts. Chronic disease is largely a result of modern living – and so is our modern entertainment industry. In many ways, they reinforce each other.

Get honest on why you use the entertainment industry in the first place if it’s habitual. Then look at ways you can get those needs met which include other forms of entertainment. Listen to beautiful or inspiring music, read books, or go on adventures with friends which can fill the social void you may be using movies and shows to fill. Having more meaningful conversations can give you that sense of humanity and drama you may be looking for from your flicks.

Make it a game or challenge to find all the cliches and limiting beliefs your favorite shows may be reinforcing. This doesn’t mean you shit all over the shows, but it’s just a practice to bring your unconscious into the conscious. You can also get clear on the ways that the show feeds you or what it is you want for yourself that you’re not getting in real life. Cheesy romance, anyone?

Aim to watch shows and movies with others. This will limit how much you watch, will keep you more present, and can alter what you end up watching and for how long.

Our perceptions and behaviors in life are shaped by the unconscious storehouse of beliefs we have under the surface. These deeper beliefs keep us from making healthier choices even when we consciously know we want to. It’s important, when healing, that we place awareness and intention on the unconscious beliefs we endorse and feed regularly and this includes the beliefs regarding how we should look in order to be the best versions of ourselves.

It’s also important to remember that mainstream entertainment is not driven by standards of health, but by economic incentives and emotional manipulation. If you can remember this, you’ll be less inclined to waste time watching trash, and you’ll also be less likely to unconsciously endorse the trash you do watch.

]]>https://www.kymber-maulden.com/how-the-entertainment-industry-impacts-our-health/feed/06 Foods Which Saved My Health — and could very well save yours.https://www.kymber-maulden.com/6-foods-which-saved-my-health/
https://www.kymber-maulden.com/6-foods-which-saved-my-health/#respondWed, 05 Jul 2017 18:54:56 +0000http://www.kymber-maulden.com/?p=3815As you may notice below – half of these power foods are from animals.

I absolutely love plants and about 60-75% of my diet is composed of things which grow out of the earth. And yet, many the foods which I can attribute my greatest health wins to….. of which I can wholeheartedly say changed my life and consistently contribute to my strength and sanity ……. Come from animals.

1. Bone Broth

Bone broth is seriously a gift from the healing Gods and not sure what my health would be like today had I not been introduced to this vital nutrient source. It’s been used in traditional cultures and in Chinese medicine for thousands of years and is one of the easiest ways to dose our bodies with bio-available minerals – just source your bones from healthy animals!

Here’s a list of some fundamental nutrients in bone broth:

Glycosaminoglycans (GAG):
Glycosaminoglycans have the primary role of maintaining and supporting collagen and elastin that take up the spaces between bones and various fibers. GAGs are supportive for digestive health since they help restore the intestinal lining, which is why a deficiency in these nutrients has been linked to digestive challenges. Several important GAGs are found in bone broth, including glucosamine, hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate.

Minerals and Electrolytes:
Bone broth provides essential minerals, including electrolytes, all provided in an easy-to-absorb form, including calcium, magnesium and potassium (not to mention many other minerals, such as phosphorus), which are important for supporting healthy circulation, bone density, nerve signaling functions, heart health and digestive health. When added sodium levels are kept low, bone broth contains an ideal balance of sodium and potassium to support cellular health and efficiency.

Collagen:
Collagen is the main structural protein found within the human body that helps form connective tissue and “seals” the protective lining of the gastrointestinal tract. It’s also the gel-like, smooth structure that covers and holds our bones together, allowing us to glide and move freely.

Gelatin: (the breakdown of collagen) was one of the first functional foods used as a medical treatment in ancient China.

Here are some benefits of consuming animal gelatin:

Helps people with food allergies and sensitivities tolerate those foods, including cow’s milk and gluten.

Protects and soothes the lining of the digestive tract and can aid in healing IBS, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis and acid reflux symptoms.

Here’s a list of these amino acids and what they do for us:

Arginine
Necessary for immune system function and wound healing
Needed for the production and release of growth hormone
Helps regenerate damaged liver cells
Needed for the production of spermGlycine
Prevents breakdown of protein tissue like muscle
Used to make bile salts and glutathione
Helps detoxify the body of chemicals and acts as antioxidant (18)
Is a neurotransmitter that improves sleep and improves memory and performanceProline
Helps regenerate cartilage and heal joints
Reduces cellulite and makes skin more supple
Helps repair leaky gutGlutamine
Protects gut lining
Metabolic fuel for cells in small intestine
Improves metabolism and muscle building

I tend to make big batches of it in my crock pot. chicken bones are often more expensive, so I tend to make beef broth. Beef broth is more nutrient-dense, yet chicken broth definitely smells better while it’s simmering! Your call on which you make. My strategy is much simpler than others, as over the years, I’ve used A LOT of broth in cooking and healing. Afterwards you’ll have possession of some of the world’s most potent medicine!

2. Collagen protein powder

Over the years, I’ve tried just about every damn form of protein powder in the book – both vegan and animal sourced.

Unfortunately most of them work poorly with my digestion and energy needs. Even the most seemingly benign protein like sprouted brown rice powder would often leave me feeling bloated and sluggish – with clear blood-sugar spikes.

This was a big challenge, as pulling myself out of hypoglycemic hell involved eating a lot more small meals throughout the day in order to build my glycogen stores back up and start producing insulin receptors again. I needed protein in these small meals to keep my blood-glucose stable, but felt at a loss as to which proteins to use.

At first – fairly new to animal consumption after 5 years – I naively assumed I could just eat small amounts of meat six times a day. But this was super hard on my digestion. My digestion and detox channels never got a break, so I began to feel toxic.

Next I tried egg white protein powder, but my body didn’t like egg white. Six years later, I still only eat the yolks. I now use small amounts of high-quality whey protein for the glutathione benefits, yet this isn’t any everyday thing. So what the fuck to do?

This is where hydrolyzed collagen protein saved my life. It contains pure protein composed of all amino acids which don’t trigger inflammatory reactions. It’s made of the parts of an animal we used to eat before muscle meat was all the rage, therefore it’s utilizing parts of an animal which would otherwise go to waste or be fed to dogs. It’s proven through multiple studies to be utilized in our own bodies in the way which we would utilize collagen produced by our own bodies. It has no flavor or smell and mixes into liquids and solids at any temperature. I put it in my smoothies, shakes, soups, coffee, and occasional sweet drinks. I mix it into just about anything that is sweet which might throw off my blood-glucose.

My nails grow insanely fast. My hair has thickened dramatically over the years. My wounds heal faster and joints are stronger. My intestines love the stuff and because of it’s unique anti-inflammatory amino acid complex, it was THE answer to my journey out of blood-sugar hell.

3. Greens

Greens seem to be one of the foods which people from all different nutritional philosophies will agree are a good idea. They’re certainly are a good idea for me. How I consume greens has changed over the years, however, as I’ve become aware of how my body relates to the chemicals in plants.

But greens are at the top of the list and I tend to crave them – especially in times of stress. Green plants have large amounts of chlorophyll in them, which is a type of plant pigment responsible for the absorption of light in the process of photosynthesis. Chlorophyll provides us with one of the greatest sources of magnesium.

Chlorophyll and magnesium are related in that the chlorophyll molecule contains a magnesium ion. Green plants are dependent on chlorophyll for photosynthesis, and magnesium is required for chlorophyll production. This element is therefore an essential nutrient for green plants. Most people in Western culture are greatly deficient in magnesium, resulting in a whole host of symptoms including anxiety and insomnia.

Greens also offer us a whole host of vitamins, minerals, and essential micro-nutrients. The wild bitter greens such as dandelions and arugula provide us with digestive bitters supporting our stomach in producing more hydroclauric acid which breaks down our foods, and they’re excellent sources of essential things like Vitamin C and iron. How much of these nutrients we actually absorb from the plants, I cannot say. But I can rarely go wrong by cooking up some broccoli or arugula or throwing some lettuce into my dinner.

I will say that, after years of vegan raw food and green juice hysteria – I’m not a huge fan of green juice! Mostly because people who tend to juice regularly are committing time and money to juicing while crowding out other things that are actually MORE nutrient-dense, such as bone broth. Also, very few people will go with straight greens in their juice, therefore they’re dumping straight sugar into their systems from the apples or citrus they use to make the green juice more palatable.

If you really want the benefit of raw greens AND your body doesn’t react to large doses of things like goitrogens or oxalates, I’d recommend blending your greens into a smoothie so that you are at least still getting the fiber. Also, a lot of the nutrients in greens are only absorbed when the whole plant, including the fiber, is consumed. This is especially true for glutathione – the body’s most important antioxidant!

4. Liver

Unfortunately, like most people in modern Western society, I don’t have the palette for liver, so it is the ONLY food I eat regularly that I don’t enjoy eating. But that’s just proof of how vitally important this food is in my healing – that I’d be willing to eat it even though I hate it! It is THE superfood that I’d recommend everyone eat at least once or twice a week.

So what makes liver so wonderful? Quite simply, it contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food. In summary, liver provides:

-An excellent source of high-quality protein
-Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A
-All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin B12
-One of our best sources of folic acid
-A highly usable form of iron
-Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
-An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
-CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
-A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.

A popular objection to eating liver is the belief that the liver is a storage organ for toxins in the body. While it is true that one of the liver’s role is to neutralize toxins (such as drugs, chemical agents and poisons), it does not store these toxins. Toxins the body cannot eliminate are likely to accumulate in the body’s fatty tissues and nervous systems. On the other hand, the liver is a is a storage organ for many important nutrients (vitamins A, D, E, K, B12 and folic acid, and minerals such as copper and iron). These nutrients provide the body with some of the tools it needs to get rid of toxins.

The impact liver has had most on my health has been on it’s amazing ability to combat fatigue and give me engergy. For the millions of Americans with chronic fatigue, this is a really big deal. Also, most of us who have reactions to immunogenic proteins in foods might find it very freeing to consume a form of protein that actually LIFTS our energy! Usually it’s the opposite for anyone with compromised intestines. I tend to throw small portions of liver into larger meat dishes to hide the taste, I make frozen liver pills, and I’ll buy clean liver pate’s every chance I get! Still working on my own pate-making skills…

5. Sweet potatoes

I’ve actually been cutting back on sweet potatoes lately, after spending the vast majority of my twenties eating them non-stop! Almost any food can become toxic if overeaten long-term – especially by an already compromised system. Something to remember if you’re like me and find a food you like and don’t react to then go crazy with it. After I removed most grains from my diet in the second half of my twenties, sweet potatoes became THE ultimate starch replacement. Despite clearly overdoing it, they truly did save my life for years!

They never stopped tasting good. Never stopped filling me up and providing my body with a more bio-available form of carbohydrate, as well as high in Vitamin C, calcium, folate, potassium and beta-carotene. They’re low-glycemic compared to regular white potatoes and are so versatile that I was actually able to eat the practically everyday for years without getting sick of them.

The few caveats to sweet potatoes are that they can cause digestive distress in folks with gut issues and reactions to FODMAPS in foods. Sweet potatoes also contain high amounts of oxalates, which may not bother many people, yet can cause a lot of chronic problems in others over time. And although they are low-glycemic in comparison to regular potatoes, they can still cause problems when eaten in abundance or on their own in folks with chronic blood-sugar issues. So, just keep in mind that they are not the carb panacea that I and many others treated them as for years.

6. Avocados

It’s hard to find a person who doesn’t like avocados! They’re out there, I’m sure, but they’re total freaks! Kidding. Not Kidding. Kidding.

Avocados have been one of my dietary staples for about half of my life. Growing up in California, it’s always been natural to have avocado on my deli sandwiches and in my breakfast at restaurants. While I was straining so hard to sustain my vegan and aspiring raw foodist diet, avocados were one of the core foods which kept me going.

Not only are they fucking delicious, they’re also a superfood and a great source of:

Saturated fat in the form of oleic acid

Amino acids

Vitamin B6, C, E, and K

Folate

Pantothenic acid

Niacin

Riboflavin

Potassium

Copper

Manganese

and magnesium.

An excellent source of carotenoids such as beta-carotene, alpha carotene, lutein, and contains a considerable amount of glutathione – our body’s main antioxidant!

I make salad dressing and sauces with them, put them in tacos, salads, and top of my homemade soups with them. And the thing that I love using them for the most is smoothies and dessert shakes. I always use avocado to make my smoothies extra creamy and filling. If you’re in CA, you’ve got it made in this department. If you’re in another state, the best I can recommend is that you aim to source your avos from the US instead of Mexico, as the nutrient-quality is better and the wages for avocado growers in the US are better.